Winner of a Commonwealth gold medal for Nonfiction and lauded as one of the five best history books of the year by the Los Angeles Times, this epic history of Mexico tells the story of that country's tumultuous origin and development from its Olmec, Aztec, and Mayan heritage to its present-day incarnation as a dependent, struggling and economically unstable modern country. The history of Mexico, writes Ram n Eduardo Ruiz, one of our most distinguished Mexicanists, is one long tragedy intermittently punctuated by triumph.